Leave office or office will leave you, Obasanjo tells veteran African leaders

Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised long serving African leaders to leave office because if they did not, ‘office will leave them.’

According to him, a reason why most of such leaders stay on was because they had fears. He added that they were, however, becoming a rare commodity.

“Well, really after 12, 15 years, some of them up to 30, some have fears, I think that now they are becoming a rare commodity. And maybe if you don’t leave office, what happens, office will leave you,” he stressed.

Africa’s longest serving presidents still going strong

Africa's longest-serving presidents (AFP) pic.twitter.com/zePxNTREwu

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He reserved praise for Angola’s dos Santos, who recently opted to step down after 38 years in charge. Obasanjo said he hoped other leaders will follow dos Santos’ lead. “Not too long ago, president dos Santos decided to leave office, maybe others will see wisdom in what he has done.”

The 80-year-old was addressing the topic of political tension in Togo, where he is on record to have called on President Faure Gnassingbe to leave office.

“I believe whatever he has to do in terms of development, whatever ideas he has, he has he must have exhausted them by now, unless he has something new that we do not know,” he told the BBC late last week.